REACTIONSand
REVIEWS

After a few pages, you will see that there is obviously
very much that is wrong with the standard Big Picturethe Big Bang,
quasars, et al. Larson ticks off anomalies and unfounded speculations
one after the other. For example, all stars regardless of age possess
some heavy elements, but theory does not account for all of them. Whence
the X-ray background of the universe? Is the General Theory of Relativity
viable? After finishing this book, you may wonder if there is any firm
ground left for the astronomer to stand upon.

Science Frontiers

A Review by
Henry A. Hoff

Any student of Velikovsky, as yet unfamiliar with Dewey
B. Larson, might wonder from the title of this book if it contains a compendium
of facts presented by Velikovsky and his supporters that have been neglected
by the scientific establishment. It is certainly a book of facts neglected
by the establishment, but no book of 131 pages could present that many
facts. Instead, it is a book of facts, evident from Larsons theory
of the physical universe, that is certainly of interest to interdisciplinarians
and may be of great importance to Velikovskians.

Velikovsky was raised and educated in Europe, while Larson
is pure Americana. He was born on the plains of North Dakota in 1898 and
spent his early years in Idaho. After an interruption for World War I
in which he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Coast Artillery, he pursued
an engineering degree from Oregon State University. After graduating in
1922, he was licensed by the State of Oregon as a mechanical engineer.

Although Larson and Velikovsky are alike in their insatiable
curiosity and their drive to understand causal forces, their approches
differ drastically. Velikovsky ventured into ancient history and astronomy
from his research in psychoanalysis and developed an electromagnetic theory
of the solar system, applicable to the Universe. Larson, on the other
hand, explored theoretical physics from his background in mechanics and
developed his physical theory based on motion.

To even begin the task of creating his own physical theory,
Larson had to become familiar with prevalent theories. He is not an academian
nor a researcher of the Establishment. In the preface of one
of his earlier books, Nothing But Motion (1974), he described himself
as an uncommitted investigator. Such an investigator is free
of the economic politics of establishment science. Larson is an amateur
in this sense only. In the course of his research, he has noted observations
and theoretical facts deduced in his theory that have been and continue
to be neglected by the professionals; hence this his latest book.

At the heart of his theory and the first concept he presents
to the reader is what he calls scalar motion. A scalar is the magnitude
of a vector. In Larsons theory it is a motion itself. The concept
is difficult to convey and Neglected Facts is
written to help explain, as well as to point out evidence from astronomy,
that scalar motion and its variety of forms exist.

His universe of scalar motion, called the Reciprocal
System of Theory, is algebraic and 3D Euclidean, making it a complex entity
to visualize. It has many surprises. Motion, not matter, not energy, not
charge, is the basic entity that occurs in discrete units. The concept
of objects moving and the interactions of these objects inside a container
(the science of kinematics) seems intuitively obvious, as does the idea
that all effects must have their causes within the container. Larson claims
these ideas are wrong. In his theory there is no container
for objects to move around in. To him the container is a local
imperception. He conceives of causes outside this subjective container
of our holocentric viewpoint, producing effects inside the container.
This exterior causal zone he refers to as the inverse or cosmic sector
of the universe (where antimatter exists).

There is what Larson refers to as distributed scalar
motion. He introduces this idea in his first chapter Fundamentals
and refers to a variety of its possible forms throughout the text. Any
such motion : can have either an inward or an outward direction, yet has
no pinpointable reference frame. When a reference frame is assigned, an
object is created relative to that reference frame. And the object can
be observed to follow any path.

This property of distributed scalar motion is one neglected
fact. Throughout the text he labels observations of or deductions
about scalar motion as either neglected, disregarded, or unrecognized
facts. It would have been a great help to the reader if Larson had included
a table of these facts somewhere. With this table the reader could locate
appropriate pages and gain a clearer understanding of these facts.

Larson does say that some facts have much more significant
consequences than others. These he calls crucial facts. The existence
of distributed scalar motion is such a fact. When the disregarded
fact that every fundamental force must originate from a fundamental
motion is considered, distributed scalar motion is found to explain the
fundamental forces. It is found to explain electric charge and mass (inertial
and gravitational).

In Chapter 2 he mentions that distributed scalar motions
can have up to three dimensions, only one of which can be seen at any
time from a local reference frame. That one is seen in three dimensions
locally. These concepts do not appear to be deduceable from what hes
presented in Neglected Facts but instead appear
to come out of nowhere. Unfortunately, it gives the reader the feeling
that Larson is inventing bizarre devices - for his own theory
- just like the ones he says others have invented to get Relativity theory
to work: These concepts concerning distributed scalar motion are introduced
in his previous books; and through the use of these multidimensional distributed
scalar motions, Larson is able to unify electricity, magnetism, and gravity.
If the motion is one dimensional, it is electric motion; two dimensional,
it is magnetic; and three dimensional, gravitational.

Velikovskians will find his discussions of gravity interesting.
Larson makes no mention of Velikovskys theory that gravitation is
an electromagnetic phenomenon. To Velikovsky there is no need for gravity
to act instantaneously or to be unique. Larson, on the other hand, claims
that it is a unique force derivable directly from motion, and that it
does act instantaneously (a neglected fact). But Larsons
point of view may be true only if gravitation is indeed the phenomenon
being observed. Should local manifestations that are called gravitation
prove to be electromagnetic phenomena, it may mean that Larsons
concept of gravitation needs to be reassessed.

Larson also tackles the idea of an absolute speed limit.
He is willing to say that the absolute limit of the speed of light is
erroneous. His limiting value of the total scalar speed of an object is
3c,
not c.

Time is not immune to new interpretation either. In the
Reciprocal System, time can have three independent dimensions (an unrecognized
fact). And space can move. These phenomena are the results
of Larsons postulation that space and time have meaning only in
the motion equation. There is motion and direction in time, but not time
travel.

The reader should be prepared for some mind-wrenching
mental gymnastics that involve the fundamental aspects of Newtonian mechanics
and its prodigy. The book is not easy to read. But doing so gives a healthy
appreciation of the fundamental doubts many of the celestial minds of
physics have toward mechanics, principally, and electromagnetics to a
much lesser degree. Larson has included a good many sentences on the flaws
of Relativity. He demonstrates that the elevation of the theory of Relativity
above physical facts has produced the dangerous situation of discrediting
the value of objective truth. His name can be added to the long list of
scientists and mathematicians who have been pointing out again and again
what is wrong with Einsteins Theory of Relativity, yet it seems
to fall on deaf ears.

The size of objects discussedafter he explains
electrictricity, magnetism, and gravity - expands to include white dwarfs,
quasars (as reported in his Quasars and Pulsars
published in 1971), and supernovae. Ultimately, he discusses the current
cosmological theories and shows how his theory, by attending to those
facts neglected by others, does not need a Big Bang. The end result of
his cosmological discussion is a cyclic or Steady State universe of motion
in which there is a dynamic equilibrium between the cosmic sector and
the material sector (where we are).

Of the observational facts Larson mentions in Neglected
Facts none are laboratory reproducible. There is an inherent danger,
then, in claiming that astronomically observable facts, not laboratory
producible, show the existence of, or are the real effects named in, a
theory. The danger lies in the unknown limitations that allow reproducibility
of the phenomena being observed. Until these limitations are known, any
theory that provides a description, which reasonably matches the observational
facts, may be correct. It is for this very reason, that Larsons
theory of motion needs to be considered. He does present some laboratory
results in his books The Structure of the Physical
Universe (1959) and The Case Against Nuclear
Atom (1963).

Neglected Facts is an informative,
well-organized book that flows steadily. After each section of presenting
theoretical facts, Larson then presents physical and astronomical observations
that may indeed represent the phenomena of his theory.

His efforts provide much food for thought.

Answer by D. B. Larson

Scalar Motion and Scalar Dimensions

In his review of The Neglected Facts
of Science (KRONOS IX:2, pp. 70-73), Henry A. Hoff suggests that the
two unobservable scalar dimensions are introduced ad hoc. Actually, they
are necessary consequences of the existence of scalar motion, which, as
I have shown, is established by observation. In a three-dimensional universe
there are obviously three dimensions of that motion. That is what the
concept of three-dimensionality means.

Hoffs problem in this case is the same as that
of many others. They take it for granted that they know what the word
dimension means, but they are thinking of geometric dimensions.
The dimensions of scalar motion are purely mathematical, not geometric.
The whole point of my discussion in Chapter 2 of The Neglected Facts of
Science is that only one of the three scalar (mathematical) dimensions
can be represented in the three spatial (geometric) dimensions of the
conventional reference system. The other two scalar dimensions of motion
are unobservable.

Dewey B. Larson, Portland, Oregon

Henry A. Hoff replies:

In the preface to The Neglected Facts
of Science, Dewey B. Larson explains that his book is purely factual
rather than purely theoretical, which was the case in his earlier books
on motion. As such he is not obliged to demonstrate where concepts such
as multi- dimensional scalar motion come from. To the reader working through
Chapter 2, it is not intuitively obvious why any one of the three dimensions
of scalar motion can have three local reference frame, Euclidean dimensions
whenever a fixed reference frame is in use. A footnote to the appropriate
page of Nothing But Motion would have sufficed.

Larson has written Neglected Facts
more from his point of view than from the readers. The reader looks through
conventional geometric eyes and tries to envision what Larson
is talking about. To the geometrician, the idea of multi-dimensional scalar
motion seems ad hoc because scalar motion seems ad hoc.
That most galaxies demonstrate a red shift does not prove either Larsons
contention that scalar motion exists, that these galaxies are all receding
or that we are observing tired light because of the great
distances involved. Astronomical observations cannot establish any theoretical
concept; however, theoretical concepts can be used to explain astronomical
observations and even predict new phenomena so as to lend credibility
to the theory.

The point Larson makes in his letter that the dimensions
of scalar motion are purely mathematical is an important one. By theorizing
that scalar motions have a potential of nine degrees of freedom (three
scalar dimensions) from which, for any conventional physical reference
frame, any three (one scalar dimension) can be operating, he allows ample
mathematical freedom to describe observations recorded in the conventional
physical frame. This added mathematical freedom coupled to a commutative
algebra has apparently allowed him to unify the previously nonunifiable
fields or forces of physics.